Maineiacs In Motion 2013 Review - Part I

My what a wild year! I suppose you don't realize how busy you have been until you look back at it all. What better than being inside on a bitter cold New Years Eve Day in Maine - reminiscing on 2013.

Speaking of cold ... we started off 2013 by heading south in January. First stop ... New Jersey to see the NJ Evringham Gang and a visit to Valley Forge, PA.

It was way too cold in New Jersey so we aimed Winne south once again ...

We enjoyed a layover near Maryville, TN where we visited with RVing friends Gene and Judi Curp - including a visit to the Museum of Appalachia.

We couldn't escape winter's grip fast enough as we hurried further south ...

Finally arriving at Rainbow Plantation in early February. Just in time for construction season.

Followed closely by Mardi Gras - Plantation Style.

We stayed in Lower Alabama through February and into March - getting our fill of seafood and enjoying our visits with bunches of RVing buddies.

Still not warm enough - we fled Lower Alabama into Florida for a few weeks.

We mostly visited places we had been before near Crystal River and Bushnell - but we did manage a trip to Tarpon Springs for a fun afternoon.

We started our trip back north in mid-March. First stop - LaGrange, GA to see more RVing friends Mike and Gerri Jones - and to visit new places like FDR State Park ...

Callaway Gardens ...

And the Little White House in Warm Springs, GA.

We then continued our trip north ... by heading east ... to Savannah. One of our favorite places. Great scenery, even better food, and a walk through the "Garden of Good and Evil."

From Savannah we wandered up the eastern seaboard - through Charleston, Myrtle Beach - and up to the Jamestown - Williamsburg  area of Virginia.

Where we got back into some snow  - what the heck is going on - it was late March already!

On Easter weekend we met up with the Jerzee Gang in Pennsylvania again. This time we moved on from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War - in Gettysburg, PA.

We finally made it back to Maine in early April ... and went to work on Mikees new storage shed project.

And got in a bunch of Taylor Anne quality time.

And then Sophie Ann joined in the fun in June!!

I told you it was a busy year. Stay tuned for the second half of 2013 .... to be continued next year.

Happy New Year Everybody!

Christmas 2013 Wrap Up

Christmas 2013 has come and gone. We shared fun, food, and drink with all the Maine Evringham/Johansen gang, finished wrapping, sharing, and opening all the presents, ate too many cookies and too much rib roast, and watched "A Wonderful Life" for the 15 gazillionth time. 

We did all this while shoveling/blowing the pre Christmas snow and then surviving the right-before-Christmas Ice Storm. Since it turned downright figid here in Maine right after that ice storm - we still have lots of sparkly frozen trees outside. Now it is snowing again! I think that Farmer's Almanac may be pretty accurate this year - forecasting a rough winter for us up here in the Northeast.

Regardless of all that precipitous weather - Christmastime 2013 has turned out pretty great. All of our kids and grandkids seem to be doing fine - sometimes in spite of all the challenges that come before them, and Peggy and I get to sit back, watch it all happen, and smile as they figure it all out. Life is indeed - pretty darn good!

The calendar says we have only one week left to complete all those things we had on our list for 2013. Looking back -- I think my list is complete. We enjoyed our winter trip to the southeast, we enjoyed our spring and summer here in Maine. We got to share the joy as Sophie Ann joined our family in June. We had a fun Fall trip out west to visit with Nan and Nevada/California relatives. And we have had a great time enjoying the end of year holidays with family. Pretty successful year I would say!

Since our 2013 list is just about checked off it's time to start thinking about what will be on the list for 2014. I'm sure there will be some RVing with visits to places we've been before and hopefully some new places. More than likely there will be some time watching kids/grandkids grow up. And there will certainly be some surprises along the way. 

Mmmm .... starting to see a trend here.

Christmas Wishes

Once again I make my annual plea to Santa.

I have been more than good this year Santa. I have been GREAT! I have done what Peggy told me to do ... mostly when she wanted it done. I have been kind to small children and animals ... and I paid all my taxes before they were due! What more can you ask!!

With that said ... I offer my wish list for Christmas 2013 ...

1. World Peace (just thought I would get that one out of the way right off the bat)

2. Another travel year free of unwanted excitement in 2014. (This basically means getting where I planned on going with only minor inconveniences along the way.)

3. Good health for me, my family, and all my friends. I'm not asking for free health "care" or even "affordable" health care insurance ... just keep us all from needing health care in the first place. If we can accomplish this then our government can muck up the rest without affecting us much.

That's it - That's all ... see I was not only GREAT this year I'm also easy to please.

Merry Christmas to all ... and to all a good night!

Florescent or LED? --- An Experiment on a Cold Snowy Day

*** Warning ***
*** This post is sorta technical. If you could care less if your light comes from an old fashioned incandescent light, a florescent light, or the sun, or if your idea of "Do It Yourself" lighting is flipping the wall switch ... you may want to skip this one! ***

In between days of running my snow blower and operating my snow shovel - I have managed to do some experimenting with converting one of Winne's florescent overhead light fixtures to LED (Light Emiting Diode).

The light fixtures I am modifying are Thin-Lite Model 766NS that take two F15T8 florescent bulbs and are powered by 12 Volts DC from Winne's DC electrical system. Each bulb is 18 inches long, draws about 15 Watts of power, and puts out about 825 Lumens of light. Since the fixture has two bulbs - the fixture draws about 30 Watts of power (approximately 2.2 Amps) and puts out about 1650 Lumens of light. The bulbs I have been using put out relatively "warm" light and are somewhat yellow in tint.

The first step in my modification was to strip out all of the existing wiring from the fixture - including the "electronics" under the center reflector. 

The next step was to install a small voltage regulator in the area that will be covered by the center reflector. The regulator was purchased on Ebay for about $2.00 and will control voltage to the LEDs at about 12 Volts DC - regardless of the DC electrical system voltage which can vary from about 12 Volts to somewhat over 14 volts depending on how the batteries are being charged.

The next step was to cut a couple of strips of LEDs from the roll of LEDs I purchased on E-Bay. The roll of LEDs contains several "segments" of LEDs with 3 LEDs per segment - and each segment is about 2 inches long. Since the fixture was originally designed for 18" tubes I was able to cut each strip at 9 segments long containing 27 LEDs each. I won't go into all the technical LED stuff here - but each LED produces about 30 Lumens of light  - therefore each segment produces about 90 Lumens and each strip I cut produces about 810 Lumens. With two strips of LEDs I should be getting 1620 Lumens - about the same as the original florescent tubes.

The LED strips have small copper pads on each segment for soldering wires and have adhesive backing for sticking to just about any surface. I understand that the adhesive doesn't hold up in the long run so a few dabs of "Goop" adhesive was added to keep the strips in place.

So with the 2 LED strips and the voltage regulator installed I put on the diffuser panel and wired it all up to 12 Volts.

The panel lit right up with instant-on light - Good News! The light produced with the LEDs I purchased is much whiter than the "warm" light produced with the florescent tubes. Both Peggy and I wanted to try a more "natural" white light than the yellowish "warm" light that we had before. Looks like we accomplished that. You can purchase LEDs with a "warmer" output but I think we got just what we were looking for. 

What about power consumption? The original florescent fixture drew near 2.2 Amps. The modified fixture draws close to 0.8 Amps - about a factor of 3 less! 

As for the amount of light ... I'm not so sure. Without installing the fixture in Winne and seeing how it looks - it is hard to tell if the amount of light is sufficient. Although the Lumen total comes up about the same - I thought the amount of light was a bit lacking.

So ... it was time for modification #2. If 2 strips and a total of 54 LEDs was good - 4 strips and a total of 102 LEDs might just be better. But just in case it's too much - better add a switch to turn off the "extra" 48 LEDs!

With all 102 LEDs on - the panel now draws about 1.5 Amps. It remains to be seen whether or not the "extra" 48 LEDs is overkill. That will have to wait for further comparison on a different day. 

All I'm really sure about at this point is that the conversion is relatively easy and inexpensive if you buy the materials as I did from Ebay. I figure I have about $13 in this modification (LEDs = $7, Voltage Regulator = $2, Switch = $4).

See - I told you it was going to be techie - and boring ... but what do you expect from a nerd on a cold snowy day in Maine!